I know of a guy that was terminated for "stealing" CAT5 that he was instructed to throw in the dumpster.
Jeff On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 9:38 AM, Frank A. Coluccio <fr...@fttx.org> wrote: > All of the larger telcos and power utilities have been 're-smelting' > copper for decades. Verizon (nee NY Telephone) had a copper smelting > plant on Staten Island at one time that recycled all of the used > cross-connect wire and cables removed from underground and poles. Telco > main distribution frame personnel were, and very likely still are, > instructed to use "copper-scrap" bags for depositing small bits and > pieces of copper wiring collected at cleanup time at the end of work > shifts. Many years ago, copper, for this reason, was one of the three > "C"'s that no one would mess with. Copper and Cash were two.I'll leave > the third one to the reader's imagination. > This subject is interesting because it's one of the cost-justifiers in > business models that seek to re-engineer large office buildings and > other copper-intensive venues where the objective is to replace all > copper wiring with hybrid fiber-wireless alternatives. While > reclamation through salvage is only a by-product of this movement, it > is nonetheless one that is cash intensive, so it cannot be overlooked. > Not only is the copper data cabling removed (Cat3/5e/6, in this case), > but also potentially tons of power cables and racks supporting > sometimes hundreds of riser telecom/LAN closets, where there are > usually anywhere from two to four closets per floor, depending on the > size of the floor plate, in a forty- or sixty-story building, say. > Every copper penny helps these days. > --- strei...@cluebyfour.org wrote: > From: "Justin M. Streiner" <strei...@cluebyfour.org> > To: nanog@nanog.org > Subject: Recycling old cabling? > Date: Tue, 17 Aug 2010 07:29:50 -0400 (EDT) > Just out of curiosity, is anyone here recycling old cabling and plant > infrastructure for their raw materials, or engaging a recycler to > handle > those materials? Where I work, there is almost always a renovation > project going on. This provides opportunities to rip out > Cat3/Cat5/long-abandoned thicknet/thinnet/FDDI-grade fiber/etc, which > we > normally do. Most of the time that old cabling ends up in the > dumpster, > but I'm wondering if anyone is recycling it, either by their choice, or > as > the result of company policy or relevant laws in your area? > Cat3/Cat5 can be broken down to raw materials with some effort, but I > haven't seen many recyclers with an economically viable process for > doing > it. Coax is a bit tougher, but not impossible (same questions about > economic viability still apply). Fiber can be tough, expecially if > you're > dealing with something like 20+ year old gel-buffered cable where the > has > long-since dried out. > I'd be interested to hear other peoples' experiences along these lines. > jms > -- Jeffrey Lyon, Leadership Team jeffrey.l...@blacklotus.net | http://www.blacklotus.net Black Lotus Communications of The IRC Company, Inc. Follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/ddosprotection to find out about news, promotions, and (gasp!) system outages which are updated in real time. Platinum sponsor of HostingCon 2010. Come to Austin, TX on July 19 - 21 to find out how to "protect your booty."
